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Recycling
even one can makes a difference
Friday,
October 18, 2002
Dear
Marti,
While
on a hike together, my 7 year old daughter Leah and I found an aluminum
can on the trail. She picked it up and insisted on carrying it the
two miles back home to recycle it. She felt so good putting it in
the recycling bin. I wished I could share her sense of accomplishment,
but with all the bad news about the environment I hear every day,
I felt skeptical about whether or not our efforts really make any
difference. It seemed like such an insignificant little drop in
the bucket.
-Jim
via website
Dear
Jim,
Rather
than wax philosophical about every grain of sand being part of a
beach, every journey of a thousand miles beginning with a single
step, every drop of water being part of an ocean, let me just talk
about Leah's one little can for a moment.
By recycling
that one aluminum can, Leah saved enough energy to run your television
for three hours (though I think we can find a better use for it
than that). She also provided that much more recycled aluminum feedstock
to make a new can, preventing the need for a manufacturer to use
virgin bauxite ore, a rock that is collected in many tropical locations.
That's significant, because when bauxite ore is harvested, they
frequently first have to clearcut the area, resulting in loss of
habitat. Then they skim off the top soil to get to the ore that
lies just beneath. Without the trees and the topsoil, soil erosion
occurs, polluting the waterways with the soil runoff. Of course,
that doesn't even include the environmental damage incurred in the
transporting and manufacturing stages. So in that one small act,
Leah saved energy and helped prevent clearcutting, loss of habitat,
soil erosion, and water pollution. Not bad, Leah.
Now combine
Leah's can toss with the efforts thousands of other recyclers in
our area are making. (Beware: here comes the every drop of water,
every grain of sand analogy.) In one year the Boulder County Recycling
Center recycled 40,000 tons of materials, saving approximately 28,148
MTCE, or Metric Tons Carbon Equivalent (that's like preventing the
greenhouse gas emissions of 22,074 cars) and 888.5 billion BTU's
of energy (this is equivalent to the yearly energy consumption of
8,924 households). Those tons recycled prevented 1,566 tons of iron
ore, coal, and limestone from being mined and 305,525 trees from
being cut, and avoided 43,385 tons of air pollutants and 162 tons
of water pollutants.*
Now
consider that all that environmental good is just from Boulder County.
According to the most recent figures from the EPA, in the year
2000 Americans recycled 53.4 million tons of recyclables, so you
do the math ... it's a whole lotta good news, good karma, and good
ju ju for you! So keep the faith in the can, Jim, and know that
it really does do something to help.
In
the meantime you better keep an eye on Leah, she sounds hooked on
recycling at an early age, and of course we all know recycling is
a "gateway activity" that can lead to even harder and more serious
environmental actions like precycling, reducing energy consumption,
composting and maybe even environmental advocacy. Kids these days.
ya gotta watch 'em.
*These
numbers are based on fiscal year 2001 and were obtained by environmental
benefits calculators developed by the National Recycling Coalition,
the Environmental Protection Agency and the Northeast Recycling
Council.
Send
your eco-questions to marti@ecocycle.org.
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